Title: Missing Scene From Plan B
Author: raindroproses
Rating: PG
Fandom: The Vampire Diaries
Pairing: Alaric/Jenna
Spoilers: Episode 2x06
Warnings: None really, except the spoilers. And schmoop.
Word Count: 1477
Disclaimer: I (unfortunately) don't own Alaric or Jenna or the fantastic show that I've stolen them from here. I just borrowed them for a bit to let them play around my sandbox. And f I made money off of this stuff, I wouldn't be living in Michigan :P
Summary: Alaric comforts Jenna in the hospital in the aftermath of what happened in Plan B.
Notes: I've had this stuck in my head since Plan B aired, and I finally decided to let it write itself out. Jalaric is really an underused pairing, especially considering their relationship is canon so I tend to have these little scenes I'd like to see mapped out at the end of episodes when I'm let down by the lack of those two. This is one of them. I didn't mean for it to come out this schmoopy, but it's MY head canon so deal with it! LOL. Comments are love, as always :)
Alaric shifted in the uncomfortable wooden chair at Jenna's beside, finally sitting down again after spending several minutes just pacing about her room. Ten hours. She'd been out cold for ten hours. The doctors had told him she was lucky... that she was expected to fully recover, and the pain meds were probably what kept her from waking. Alaric wouldn't buy it. He couldn't buy it... not after what he'd seen. That wound could have easily killed her. The knife had gone straight through Jenna's stomach and all he'd done was stand there in shock, watching as she did it... as she followed Katherine's bidding, her mind not her own.
If anything, that was what gave Alaric a faint glimmer of hope... Jenna hadn't meant to hurt herself... she hadn't actually been trying to kill herself. He was starting to get a bit of a complex about the women in his life, each one of them coming so close to leaving... one of them finally sealing the deal in the end. It was one thing living through Isobel's departure. It'd almost ripped him to shreds, and if he was being honest with himself he had no idea how he'd gotten through it all. He couldn't stand to lose Jenna too. Not now... not when there was so much left to say to her... so much they hadn't done.
Alaric sighed, placing his hand on top of hers before leaning down to press a soft kiss against her temple.
"Please wake up, Jenna..." he murmured softly, fighting back the tear that threatened to fall. He had to be strong... if not for himself, then for Elena and Jeremy who were waiting outside for news. They were young and they needed reassurance... he couldn't give it to them if he was too busy falling apart.
Alaric sat that way for hours, his fingers lazily tracing patterns against the top of her hand in hopes that somehow, some way, even through the medicine induced sleep, Jenna would feel his presence and know she was safe.
...and then, he drifted off.
It was some time well into the night and past visiting hours that she finally began to stir, waking Alaric instantly as he realized he'd fallen asleep in the chair.
"Ric?" she called groggily, opening her eyes to look at the normally handsome man sitting next to her. He looked like he'd been run ragged, which caused Jenna to frown in confusion. She didn't remember much of anything, and she certainly didn't remember winding up here... wherever here was. "What's wrong? Where are we?"
Alaric sat up quickly, pressing the "call nurse" button as he was instructed to do earlier in the day in the case that she'd woken up.
"Shh... it's okay," he soothed, placing a hand against her cheek as his eyes welled up with tears again. "We're in the hospital. Do you remember anything at all?"
Jenna frowned again, trying to think through the haze of the pain meds they had her on. She remembered being in the kitchen with Ric earlier in the day... she remembered having a good time and drinking what was possibly a little too much wine... she remembered Elena coming home and talking to someone on the phone... after that it was all a blur. That's when it hit her like a ton of bricks.
"The hospital?" Jenna asked, the panic evident in her voice. "What happened? Why am I in the hospital?"
Alaric was stunned. He had no idea what to say to her... what could he say anyway? He couldn't tell her about Katherine without giving everything else away, but more frightening than that he couldn't seem to muster up enough courage to lie to her either. It didn't feel right... not after all she'd been through. Luckily for Alaric and all parties involved the nurse came rushing in shortly after her question, cutting off his would-be dialogue.
"Miss Sommers! It's good to see you up and about!" the cheerful woman said, immediately coming over to check her vitals.
"What happened?" Jenna asked again, this time directing her question at the nurse which allowed Alaric to relax a little.
She smiled at her.
"Honey, you had one hell of an accident in the kitchen... I'll never know how someone can walk into a knife!" the nurse said, scribbling on a piece of paper the results of her findings. "Lucky for you, this young man right here thought on his toes... the ambulance got you here real quick. He hasn't left your bedside since."
Jenna probably should have been more concerned about the fact that she'd apparently had a knife sticking out of her stomach earlier in the day... should've been more concerned about how something like that could even happen to someone, or the fact that she had no recollection of it... but all she could find herself thinking about was that last sentence the nurse had said to her.
"How long have I been out?" she managed, looking over toward Ric.
He smiled softly at her.
"The better part of a day..."
"And you were here with me the whole time?"
Alaric nodded, reaching out to hold her hand again the same as he had earlier.
"Honey, we tried to tell him to go home... get some sleep. We couldn't pry him out of that chair for nothing," the nurse said laughing, smiling at the two of them. "I'll just be across the hall if you need me."
Alaric watched as the nurse walked away, taking a deep breath before turning back to Jenna.
"Not that I'm complaining mind you, but why did you stay with me? I'm glad you did, but you could've gone home, Ric... you look exhausted," Jenna murmured sleepily.
He sat there for a moment trying to find the right words to say to set her mind at ease. Was it for Elena and Jeremy? No. Not really. He cared about them, sure... almost like they were his own these days, and he'd have to report back to them with the good news first thing in the morning that their aunt was going to be fine. But the reason he stayed with her ran much deeper than that. It scared him to even dwell on it, but he knew she had to hear it for herself... she deserved to have that kind of reassurance after everything she'd been through that night. He was planning on telling her after the kids were asleep anyhow before everything went horribly wrong, so why should their location make any difference?
"I stayed because I love you, Jenna..." he managed, his voice gravelly from sleep and the tears he was fighting back as he spoke. "I just... I didn't want to burden you with this now after all you've been through, but I almost lost you tonight and... I just wanted you to know. I don't know what I would've done if I never got to tell you that."
Jenna laid there, blinking at Alaric in silence as she watched the emotions play across his face. She was sure she was going to wake up any moment in her own bed, alone, where everything made sense and the world wasn't spinning so quickly around her that it made her dizzy. Instead, with every blink of her eyes, she noticed how real this was... and that the man sitting next to her wasn't going anywhere.
"I... I love you too, Ric," she said stunned, amazed at how right the words felt... at how easily they came even after she'd been hurt so many times by men in the past. Alaric was different. She was more sure of it now than ever before.
A single tear fell across his cheek at Jenna's confession as he leaned forward to capture her lips with his own. He'd never tasted a kiss so sweet... so honest... so meaningful in all of his life. For the first time in a long time Alaric felt like the universe was rewarding him somehow... that all his good deeds had been recognized, though he'd never understand what he'd done to deserve someone like Jenna.
After all, he thought he'd lost her hours ago. He thought he'd been cursed... that being close to someone just meant they'd hurt him in the end... that loving someone always made them turn away, and that he was better off alone just as Isobel had left him years ago. But as he felt the soft caress of Jenna's lips against his skin, and heard the depth of emotion behind her words, suddenly everything fell into place. All at once, Alaric knew he'd made the right choice.
This was where he was meant to be.